(no) Qualiflyer future?
 

In an interview with the swiss daily newspaper 'le Temps' (in french) the President of SR daughter Crossair (and for three weeks this spring 2001 also CEO of the whole SR-Groupe/-holding) Moritz Suter says that in the long run the Qualiflyer-Alliance has no future (all french partners will leave the Qualiflyer Group soon anyway, Sabena probably too).

But before joining another Allliance, SR should first solve its own (financial and other) problems and only afterwards start to look and negotiate to join one of the big alliances.

It's a chicken and egg problem for SR. SR hasn't forgotten how much revenue they lost as a result of leaving Atlantic Excellence. SR could use that sort of alliance revenue now.

Has AF ever publicly stated that AF won't accept SR in SkyTeam?

Do you think that SR is now willing to accept the "booking from open inventory" requirement of SkyTeam membership?

I don't think they will <B>again</B> place demands on the table that are unacceptable for the others. Than they would be making the same mistake twice. So it's either Skyteam or Star. But the question is will AF accept Swissair now that they have had the highest revenue ever ...

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Cheers,

Brenno.

IMHO, it should be neither Star nor SkyTeam for Swissair, but Oneworld. SR is already working together on a code-share basis with AA, AY, IB, CX, QF, and with their Zurich hub they are an attractive partner for AA. Also, I'm not sure whether Swissair customers would like to have such "unsafe" partner as Korean or CSA.

Are CSA unsafe?

Stephen

Absolutely NOT. CSA is a fine airline.

I think many people have the idea that airlines from eastern Europe are unsafe. Regardless of whether this is true or not (personally, I don't think so, and fly LOT once in a while), customers might not appreciate such a partnership.

Please also see:

Investors hope Corti will sell off the stakes in the French and Belgian partners, and sign up with a bigger ally- transatlantic partner American Airlines, perhaps, or KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. Two of the outgoing supervisory board members, Credit Suisse CEO Lukas Muhlemann and prominent Geneva banker Benedict Hentsch, say the group needs to join one of the larger alliances.

The trouble is, SAirGroup may have difficulty attracting other airlines.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...4/b3726143.htm


http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum.../000145-2.html

Information source: http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pag...te=IXLZHNNP94C


There is an ominous ticking sound coming from the hold of Swissair, the Swiss airline. With debt at 6 times a fragile SFr1.1bn in equity, it can waste little more time jettisoning loss-making French and Belgian subsidiaries. So far, no suitors have appeared for AOM and Air Liberté, the French carriers. They are bleeding about SF60m a month. Nor has Swissair's French partner, Marine-Wendel, pitched in. Its chief, head of France's employers' federation, is balking at political pressure to save more than 4,000 jobs.

Swissair's Mario Conti, too, must resist the demands of job security. At the latest, he should cut out of France as promised by the end of this month. He should also abandon Belgium's Sabena, which lost SFr500m last year - Swissair has a 49 per cent share in its future losses. He showed a glimpse of his grit hacking off an infected toe, in the shape of Air Littoral. Now bigger limbs must go.

But the costs of shutting down three airlines, to the extent they exceed last year's provisions, may drain Swissair's equity like a hole in the fuel tank. Meanwhile, planned asset sales, including SFr700m of property and the Atraxis IT system, run the risk of looking like distressed disposals. Sales of its most attractive non-core businesses, such as Gate Gourmet, would leave Swissair as little more than a minor carrier hemmed in by the Alps. If it cannot enter a big alliance such as Oneworld, or find a buyer, Swissair will need more capital. Mr Conti's friends in corporate Switzerland are the only investors likely to supply it.

If NW and KL are willing to create their own alliance, Swissair would be a nice addition, especially with their connections in eastern Europe, where KLM is pretty weak.And if CO and Malaysia would join them, that would be a competitive one.In these days SR has to focus on rebuilding their name as a quality airline, a friend of mine, who flew SR on Dus-Zrh-Bos several times a year for the last 10 years told me, that they downgraded the service in Eco to a level, normally only Sabena operates......
The funny thing about that is, that SR won a price for best overall Eco service worldwide, just a few weeks ago, based on a survey of 15000 travel agents.
But both SR and Sabena seem to be one on a good way in terms of rebuilding their fleet, so I would not think, that the decision to crunch Sabena is alreayd done.

i wonder if there is any new guess on what the qualiflyer future will be...

any news or rumours? thanks.

mag

Talks with LH about IT or maybe more?

http://www.airliners.de/news/index.p...le=209&week=31

[This message has been edited by elsas (edited 08-03-2001).]

I heard that the new CEO made an approach to Delta quite recently and was told that they wouldn't be interested unless SR put their house in order.

If true, the rumor shows that the new CEO has identified the most likely way back to black ink. SR backs away from France... AF must like that. CEO realizes DL sourced alot (30+%?) of SR TransA revenue during the AE era and that DL elites would rather hub in ZRH than CDG. ergo...

you can be assured that SR (Mr Corti) is evaluating all possibilities and has talks with all majors.

The most advanced talks are with LH.

reading through todays swiss Sunday-papers, at this time speculations about a (most) possible outcome in the near future is:

* Sabena might code-share all Belgium/Germany flightswith Lufthansa (Sabena could than actually 'give up' flying Bruxelles - Frankfurt themselves, LH would 'give up' flying Hamburng and Berlin - Bruxelles.
* Some journalists predict, that Sabena will join StarAlliance and give up (all?) transatlantic routings, but bring in it's strength of/for the Europe (Belgium) - Africa market.
* Swissair, on the other hand, doesn't like too much LH's strength in the current negotiations (trying to 'treat' SR as a junior partner to feed it's own long-haule flights from their hubs MUC, FRA and DUS, as they do/did it with OS) and might still try to pursue other options (AA, or back to/with DL - the DL/Air France option is more likely now again, after SR having given up it's own French partners AOM, Air Liberté).

I don`t see any way to get EU approval for those speculations by some journalists.LH is fighting against the EU for a long time on their AUA and recently EW alliances/partnerships.
Austria is dominated by the Star Alliance since the AUA deal, Belgium and Switzerland would be "owned" by LH/* as well.
It is not the fact, that I don`t like SR in *, but * is already strong enough.
Wings need another european partner, those speculations seem to make more sense.
I would love to see those "Alcazar" talks taking place again.

Grüße aus Moers !!

P.S.
Was habt ihr mit dem Wankdorfstadion gemacht ????

Sabena's (Belgium's) airline problems will, anyway, be (are already) an EU issue (EU doesn't like/allow more subsidies from the Belgium governement for Sabena).

Switzerland is no EU member.

The new Wankdorf stadium will be opened in 2 years from now - Germany should help Switzerlands candidature (Switzerland and Austria try to put up a joined candidature for a European Championship to be held in both countries) for 2008. I was there (11 years old), together with my father, when Germany turned the soccer-worldchampionship in 1954 against Hungary after being 2:0 down, "Der Ball ist rund - das Spiel dauert 90 Minuten", Sepp Herberger ...).

What about SR joining OneWorld, with or without SN? They are already codesharing with AA, AY (ZRH/BSL-HEL), IB (ZRH-MAD), CX (ZRH-HKG) and QF (SIN-SYD). Sabena, and maybe SR associate SAA, could add new destinations in Africa...

RE: Wankdorf: Some Germans actually went to Berne and saved some of the "historic" lawn...

The EU is putting renewed pressure on the LH/AUA alliance. SR in *A would follow the same mold. The only way out would be for LH to buy AUA. This is likely, especially in the light of recent reforms in Austria.

Some friend have suggested SR join oneworld. This seems indeed a very likely move, because SR would actually compliment BA in Europe. It would also imply cutting down international operations, on their MD-11's, which are ageing fast anyway. Replacing them will cost money that SR doesn't have. Sticking with an Airbus fleet and serving as oneworld's continental hub would also improve AA's position.
IMHO, oneworld is the best deal, *A is entirely unlikely.